Over the years I've only ran Dos and Windows as my main OS.Every few years I install Linux in a dual-boot or in a VM, download all the updates, mess with config files, boot it up a couple more times, look at it with satisfaction and then go back to Windows because that's what runs most of the software that I use.

I used to think that way until it became crystal clear that Linux is not Windows and doesn't run Windows programs. Other than games, most Windows programs have Linux counterparts that are less expensive, work well, and have fewer hastles such as product keys.

Because of this i never migrated from Arcsoft photo editor that came with my camera to Photoshop. Moved up to The Gimp. Moved from MS Works to Open Office to Libre Office. Moved from Sound Recorder to Audacity, Ardour, and Rosegarden. Many of the Windows applications that could have cost buco bucks has been sidestepped by the alternatives.

The problem is, of course, that it only takes one program that can't be replaced to break the whole process. Like a mathematical conjecture can be disproved with only one counterexample.

Most Windows programs have Linux alternatives. I would even say the Linux alternatives are often superior. But then you have that one program that just doesn't have an alternative and won't otherwise run. I've been in a situation where MS Office was the killer for me, as OpenOffice just didn't work with compatibility (that w

But there are some Linux programs that have no Windows equivalent either, including very basic stuff. Try 'sed' in Windows. You can install cygwin and get a lot of Linux functionality, but not all of it. But for me it's enough to get by at work. At home, I run a mix of Windows and OS X. Since OS X gives me full bsd functionality, I'm pretty happy. I hate having to load X11 on top of OS X or Windows to get Linux programs to run, but it's not worth the headaches to me to run a full second OS on my machi

here is the thing, the vast majority of us don't need those programsMost content today is Product As A Serverice(PaaS), and delivered via HTML on a web browser, being platform agnostic. The shift to everything on HTML increases with HTML5,

Some people need industry specific applications that only run on one version of one OS. That is mabey %2 of the population. If all you do is listen to music, browse, the web, like most people, a newb distro (see ubuntu or mint), works a lot better, is easier to configure,

My video games are unlikely to run on a VM due to the hardware acceleration needs of the games.
I went from DOS to Windows 3.1, to Windows 95, to Linux and Windows dual booting, to Linux exclusively for about six years, then I had a new laptop that had a problem with the clock not working properly and had to keep it on Windows, then ended up slowly ending up more and more on Windows. Most of the computers still dual-boot but haven't been booted into Linux in awhile.
I'm considering building some Linux bo

Unfortunately, its 2013 and what you said is not currently and never has been true. I have at least 5 different apps that will not work properly in VMware or VirtualBox that I can think off of the top of my head.

For fucks sake Ubuntu wouldn't run with 3D acceleration on VMware Fusion until recently (I think they fixed it in this last point release). The fact that you're making such wildly inaccurate statements leads me to believe you've never even used a virtual machine.

No, gimp is not an alternative to photoshop if you need it for real work. I've tried that transition multiple times, the gimp is at best on par with photoshop from the 90s. It might be fun for a hobbyist, but not for work.

Libre/OpenOffice is also nowhere near MS office for work. Again, maybe for home stuff, but not in a work environment.

And those two are just the tip of the iceberg. No alternative to video editing software. Nothing that even comes close to Visual Studio. Autocad. Just to name a few.

I used The GIMP for commercial design work, many times over. No problem. The fact that people can't reuse their pricey or stolen PS plugins makes them deluded that GIMP is not on par.

Similarly MS Office macros are the biggest culprit in crossing over to Libre.

Openshot video editor comes to mind, there is AVIDemux, ffmpeg or mencoder.

Visual Studio 2012 sucks compared to my Gedit or Geany, seriously. TFS integration lags the interface, the treeview is buggy: it randomly does not show build context menus. Intelli sense breaks randomly while the project seems to think I am still working on checked-in files which only VS restarts can cure. There is negative space all over, it was designed by drunk 5-year-olds.

These are just tools, the process starts with you. If you rely on a specific tool to be good at your job, you are nothing more than a replaceable ant.

I'm waiting for the usual "oh just run them in a VM" response. Conveniently forgetting you're still paying an OS license, and then having to maintain TWO operating systems, deal with the non-vm compatible application headaches, etc.

If you need to run Windows (or Linux, or OS X, or whatever platform) for a mission critical app, run Windows.

Does that count for all your computers? While I have software that keeps my primary computer on Windows, one day I realized that there was really no reason that some of my secondary computers couldn't run Linux so over time I switched them to Debian. Playing around with Linux in a VM is one thing, but actually using it over a long period of time as your operating system allows you to become more familiar and comfortable with how it works. Think of it as a way of easing into eliminating Windows (though ad

I have my desktop, a file server and a couple of laptops, I actually have RHEL dual-booting on one of the laptops but I haven't booted it in months.The thing is, I have a nice desktop with three monitors, I'm not going to switch to one small screen with a cramped keyboard just for the sake of using Linux, I'm not going to boot Linux on my desktop just to browse and listen to music and then have to boot into Windows when I want to do something else, and when I'm away from home I want to have the same softwar

I started on a C64 then migrated to an Amiga 500 to Amiga 2000 to Amiga 3000. After CBM died I hung on for about 5 years before giving in and switching to linux. After running on that for about 7 years I bought a video camera and picked up a mac for video editing because using linux applications for that was just too painful. I still use both OS X and linux. I have windows XP on a laptop for my cars programmer and that is all it's ever used for. I find if you never let windows on the net you seldom hav

About three or four years ago, I came home to an angry missus and a dead Vista box. Something had gotten into it, and I just couldn't get it out. So I made a pair of partitions and installed ubuntu temporarily. My lady accepted it off the bat, as all she needs is a firefox logo, and away she goes. I missed playing Torchlight. Days turned into weeks. I still cant clean that Vista install. She was happy, I missed Torchlight. I found Warzone 2100, i was happy and now she wondered where I was all night. A few more pages off the calendar, That Vista infection still eludes my occasional poking, but I find UFO : AI. Now i get up early, so i can storm the alien bases before work. Then i find WINE and my friend Torchlight comes back to me.

Now, I enjoy only rebooting when i update the kernel, instead of daily crashes and lockups. I miss easy breezy windows software installs, I dread compiling from the command line, but find myself becoming increasingly literate with every venture into the dark empty terminal. I paid little attention to the Mainstream games, until i heard Steam had released a linux client. Yay.

I am not sure about most frequent, but I went from Windows to Linux over 10 years ago and haven't looked back since. I still encounter Windows periodically in my work, but I try to keep my distance. All the systems I administer for myself run Linux. I wouldn't want to be making any OS migration a "frequent" activity.

I've moved from DOS to OS/2 to Linux and then to Windows. But lately I find myself using Android machines(mostly my Transformer and my Nexus7) more and more.
Back in university I was mostly on SunOS/Solaris. When you got a choice between a badly maintained Windows 3.11 PC with a 14" screen and a Sun workstation with a 21" screen and an optical mouse then that is no choice at all. At work I had for 5 years used Linux starting 2001 but nowadays the subversiveness is gone, I don't need the power of the command

I have a Pentium-90 machine that I set up for playing DOS games, but ever since I upgraded my main computer to a Core i5 Sandy Bridge CPU it's sat there gathering dust. That's fast enough to run just about anything full-speed in DOSBox, especially since I never had any games that could use the P-90's Voodoo3 card in DOS.

As to the original question, I'm still a dual-booter but have been spending much more time in Windows 7 than Linux on my desktop machine, especially now that I've got a Linux server for com

I don't have a migration path Just as with any OS, you're supposed to use the right tool for the right job. As for me, I multi boot using VMWare Workstation from my Windows 7 machine at home. While at work, I'll boot into CentOS, Windows XP, or Windows 7 from my MacBook running 10.8.3. Even though my background is strongly Windows based, I can't say I have a dog in this fight; because I don't.

Windows to OS X and Linux. I long ago switched from Windows NT to Linux for servers and then a few years later switched from Windows XP to Mac OS X for my desktop.

It hit me one day that outside of Microsoft Office I wasn't needing the MS ecosystem. On Mac I had Office if I needed it, Photoshop, Illustrator, iTunes and all my code development for Linux could be properly tested on Mac and then copied to (instead of ported to) Linux servers. Plus with VMWare Fusion I could run that one Windows only application I needed every month or two.

I now every now and then catch a glimpse of people trying to install various libraries for development such as OpenCV or some python library on Windows and cringe.

I use all three daily! Dual-boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu on my desktop at home. MacBook Pro at work (no boot-camp), along-side a RHEL 5 desktop, Ubuntu laptop, and a Windows 7 desktop. Where I work, folks regularly use two OSes between their laptops (Win/Mac/Ubuntu) and development desktops.

Thus, there really was no migration path, unless you count giving up Windows 7 for a Mac 4 years ago as my primary work machine.

CP/M from 1978 to 1988. Call it DOS if you want; they're the same idea.
Mac since 1986, when I discovered how easy it was to use.
Unix since 1987, Linux in the mid 90s.
Windows since 1997 when I had to use a 'real' CAD program instead of the one our company built using a homegrown Forth OS. I still only use Windows for engineering programs. My home machine is a Mac, and the telescopes use Linux.

As an aeronautical engineer, I've pretty much consigned myself to just being a Windows user. All of the software I use at work is Windows-only stuff. At home it's simpler to operate in the same environment. I do like Linux, though; openSUSE has a special place in my heart after having installed it on an old run-down MacBook and I loved it as a backup. Call me lazy, but these days it's just easier to be a one-OS guy as far as computers go. I have more fun rooting Android or iOS devices and using them as controllers/streamers/emulators around the house.

As an aeronautical engineer, I've pretty much consigned myself to just being a Windows user. All of the software I use at work is Windows-only stuff. At home it's simpler to operate in the same environment.

Now and again I'll toy with Linux.

But the FOSS apps that interest me as a home user I already have running under Windows.

Used windows. Tried linux. Couldn't get peripherals, such as printers, to work. Reverted to windows. Tried linux. Couldn't get peripherals, such as printers, to work. Reverted to windows. Stopped trying linux altogether. Staying with windows.

I find this very amusing. The current state of affairs, in my experience/opinion, is that most printers (the list of exceptions gets smaller and smaller all the time) and scanners are far far easier to install in Ubuntu than in Windows. As in, plug printer in (or search for it on network... the search results turn up faster and more accurate than in Windows too, btw) and by the time you put paper in the tray, it is ready to use. Compare this to the clickfest of installing HP drivers for Windows, a process which will add extra crapware such as browser toolbars if you aren't careful. And god forbid you turn the printer on in Windows before installing the drivers, as you will most likely have an incorrectly recognized and difficult to remove printer object which will now prevent you from installing the correct printer.

I know this is going to mod me down, but it is my experience and I am too old to be a fan boy.
Used Linux (SuSE, Ubuntu). Tried windoze (vista). Couldn't get peripherals, such as hp photosmart 7350 to work. Reverted to Linux. Tried windoze (7). Couldn't get peripherals, such as hp 7350 to work. Reverted to Linux. Staying with Linux.

I am comfortable in a CLI, I just think it's a waste of time to drop to Terminal every 30 minutes, for 5 minutes, when you coud do the same by marking 3 checkboxes and clicking next. Especially on what is defined as "Desktop version" of the OS.

Well here's the most recent example: I installed Ubuntu 13.04, and wanted to put up some toolbars with shortcuts to a few applications. Under Windows, I create a folder, shove all sortcuts there, then create a toolbar and point to that folder. Problem resolved.Under Ubuntu, it seems to be more complicated. But I found this: http://www.noobslab.com/2013/04/panel-indicators-collection-for-ubuntu.html [noobslab.com] - which all requires you to drop to Terminal and do stuff.

Migrating? For what? For work, for school, for home? I've used Windows, BSD, Solaris and Linux but I never "migrated" to or from any of them. I used the best tool for the job. When you've got PuTTY windows opened in Windows and you're fooling around with Linux *and* BSD servers what's your operating system then? All three, right? Migrating? What's that?

Yeah, I stopped migrating years ago. I've lived in the same town for twenty years now.

Sorry. Thought of this the minute I saw the word and had to use it somewhere.

Ah, yeah. As said by a few already, use what works for what needs doing. That said, I now spend most time in Linux and it's my host OS on both the tower and laptop. Wasn't doing much important that required Windows so I got off easy. Lucky, that, for the most part.

Since the options provided didn't seem to acknowledge 80s computing, I didn't consider the question beyond whatever I have used since Slashdot has been around. Admittedly, that still includes old school MacOS.

Yeah, agreed. I migrated three times ever: DOS to Windows in '95 (pre-Win95 doesn't count as an OS), Windows to Linux in the late 90s, and Linux to OSX almost 10 years ago. How many times exactly is someone expected to do the same migration??

Is it just me or does asking for the "most frequent" option make no sense?

If you work with multiple computers at the same time (like, you work in IT), then it makes a lot of sense. But even with one computer, you eventually migrate from one computer to another, so that "most frequent" migration has a very low frequency.

For me, the most common case is I get a computer donated with Windows, and I need to make it work. Sometimes, the best way is to install Linux. Especially if it was "upgraded" at some point to a version of Windows with a questionable license.

Is it just me or does asking for the "most frequent" option make no sense?

I guess it's for fickle people. My path is essentially: DOS -> AmigaOS -> Solaris -> Linux, with the qualification that the old systems never entirely went away, it is just a change of focus for my desktop usage. I've never gone backwards or done the same migration twice.

Now if it was about data migration between OS's that would make a lot more sense. I move data between Solaris, Windows, and Linux all the time.

I run whatever OS I want, I can "migrate" from one to another with moment's notice by starting up the OS in Virtualbox or VMWare (If I don't have the OS installed, I can usually get a working VM image from somewhere without ever having to "install" the OS). The guest tools provided by different virtualization platforms usually give me easy way to transfer files, clipboard, and devices. I especially like Virtualbox in it's "seamless" mode - windows of the guest OS just appear like regular windows of the hos

Many years ago I "switched" from MS DOS to a Linux (can't remember which one, but a BusyBox variant I'm pretty sure, maybe Damn Small). Except that actually most of the software still ran on DOS, so I duel booted. At around the same time, on another computer, it went MS Windows 98 SE to Mandrake + RedHat (I think we wiped MS Windows all together), and then duel booted the two Linuxes).

Then, when I purchased my first computer, I had it built without an OS, and dropped Mandrake on it, along with MS Windows 98

For now I've been enjoying a setup where I use Windows 7 but bring in some parts of UNIX with MinGW Shell (a thing similar to Cygwin). I love to do simple programming stuff there, and I've found myself using it to other tasks too. The Windows base provides things like good apps/games support, polished graphics drivers and hardware-accelerated Flash.

What is remarquable in this poll, is that there are so few options left....It's kind of depressing, I miss the years when you could discuss the relative merits and innovations ofUnix/VMS/G-COS/VM-CMS/ITS/SAIL/TENEX/MULTICS/VOS/etc........

vs "on now Linux is too complicated but should I upgrade to windows 8"....

I started out with SV-BASIC which was really just a BASIC interpreter for the Spectravideo SV-328 MkII I had.

Next up was MS-DOS and PC-DOS, somewhere along the way I installed Windows 3.1 and then 3.11 for workgroups.

Eventually I felt forced to move to Windows 95. Somewhere around the time that Window 98 was released I started using Linux (Initially Red Hat but I seemed to switch distros about once every couple of weeks at the time).

For a while I dual-booted Windows 2000 and FreeBSD. I also had a couple of

I even used my Amiga version of WordPerfect to as an upgrade base to get the Linux version. The files were fully compatible (with a warning that the WP version was old) between OS and across 68K (big (correct) endian) to x86 (little (incorrect) endian)

I migrate several times a day. On the phone there's Windows 7.5, on the PCs there's Windows 7 at work, while at home it's Windows 8 and Android. I've nearly given up on having Ubuntu working on the media centre (x86) PC, so that one will be shelved and replaced with a silent and relatively smart Android box.

My most used operating system these days is iOS. This isn't an iOS rant, I imagine for others on here their most used would be Android.

That's the point of all the post-PC hype, right? I have a Mac and I use Windows at work and there's obviously times when mobile won't do, but neither desktop nor laptop are my most frequently used devices anymore.

I use Linux, Windows, OS X, Solaris, etc. I've run OS/2, BeOS, and more as well. The only time I 'migrate' anything is if I am re-purposing a box, usually because I'm replacing its primary function with something newer.

When entered the computer business in 1984 (coming from photography) I purchased one each of the then-popular systems: Apple II, Macintosh, and MS-DOS. Since them, I've used pretty much everything, including Unix, CP/M, and many of the early DOS variants like the Northstar Dimension. Later, NeXTstep, Linux, etc. Currently, the computers in the house are OSX, Windows 7, and iOS. But I've never migrated from anything TO anything; I just may not currently be using examples of some platforms.

I started in the 1960s with FMS (FORTRAN Monitor System) and then IBSYS, both IBM mainframe OSes. Then I went to System II, a mainframe OS for CDC 3800 specially developed for the US Air Force for a long-running, constantly evolving system for operating space satellites; I started on that project in 1969 and left it in 1985. (That system remained in service until about 1992.) Then I went to IBM's System 360 (or its successor, I'm not sure). In 1993, I worked on a client-server project using UNIX, starti

I gave up Windows a long time ago, apart from occasionally booting into it for gaming. It's too much of a chore manually unticking boxes on every bit of software to stop it doing annoying spammy stuff (usually to do with systray icons) and even if I'm good at avoiding it there's always the looming malware threat. Plus having to support it and having unpicked people's home computers over the years has put a bad taste in my mouth. All in all I'd rather avoid it at home.

have a mac at work again, which I had about 15 years ago. the UI has become unwieldy and bloated, I'm disappointed. I'd say the same thing comparing it the NeXTStep for which the current UI gets its heritage (I had a NeXTStation for a home computer too back then).

Started with a PCjr (haah), upgraded to an SE, then a Performa, then another, a G4, and a MacBook Pro that I'm posting from. Also Win 3.1 through 7, NextStep 3.3, Rhapsody DR2, BeOS 5, Haiku, and a few other odds and ends in VMWare.

...but with a strong interest in the BSDs and Haiku as well, but for now what I know best is Linux.

Used Windows from Win95 OSR2 to WinXP SP2 before moving to Linux sometime in 2006, just in time for the V-Bomb to be dropped. Never looked back and it's easily one of the best decisions I've made regarding computing. I only wish I was brought up on UNIX instead of Windows, because it seems to me as if all those years on Windows have hampered my progress learning.

In the last 10 years I went RedHat -> Suse -> Ubuntu -> Mint. And more generally the most common 'migration' is pulling a HDD and putting a new larger/faster one in, doing a fresh install at the same time & needing to migrate files and settings from the old HDD. I guess technically I'm also 'migrating' when I get a new laptop or something and wipe the default windows install, but given I've never even booted to the windows install it's not really 'migrating'.

I don't migrate that frequently, and I consider it well so I've never (so far) moved back. Which makes "most" equal to "once".

I've put my vote into "Windows or Linux to OS X" because I replaced my home machine (booting into Linux for most things and Windows for games) with an OS X machine (booting into OS X for most things and Windows for games, though less and less of that since thankfully many good games are now available on OS X). So does that count as one or as two migrations?:-)

'Migrating to a new OS' isn't masturbation. If you have a 'frequent' way of doing it, you're doing it wrong. Unless your job is to test the process of migrating from one OS to another, then you shouldn't have a frequent migration path, if you do, you need to go see a doctor for some ADD drugs since you're parents clearly failed at teaching you to function within the normal attention spans required for every day life.

For my 13th birthday I got a laptop and decided to try out Ubuntu on a virtual machine. I liked it, so I dual booted it with Windows 7. When I was 14, I replaced Ubuntu with Debian and got rid of the Windows partition. I'm now 15 years old and still happily using Debian. I didn't like libreoffice so I now write my assignments in Latex whenever possible. I still use Windows at school but most applications are cross-platform.

Nice, my first Apple was a IIc about the same time. I loved that it didn't need peripheral cards and had been using II+, IIe, and the clone Franklin Ace for some time at school. At around $700 it was a good deal for an all in one - computer and monitor with a 5.25" drive. Didn't touch another computer until the early 90's when I learned a bit of DOS. Then took a job doing PC support in '94 and about a year later had my first self built PC clone. I was an OS/2 guy, then switched to Linux, then over to Window

Oh, the IIc was *the* computer of the mid-80s. My family only had an "Orange" (an Apple ][ clone)... but it did have a 128k card and 80-column-text card (and a dinkly little black box to switch between text modes, IIRC). From there it was MacOS via a Mac SE30 and a Powerbook 100 (still very fondly remembered). And then I discovered Pentium chips, and how much faster they were than the Motorola chips Apple was still clinging to -- that started a brief and sordid affair with Windows. It all ended with my

Started on TRS-80 Model 1 (short time), moved to C64 (short time), moved to CP/M (KayPro), moved to DOS, moved to Mac (OS 6?), moved to Windows 3.1, moved to OS/2, moved to NT (3.51 then 4), moved to Linux around 2000/2001 and that's where I've been ever since.

You're asking if Adobe Creative Suite (ACS, I assume) runs on Windows? That's funny because I nearly always see it running on Windows, once or maybe twice I've seen it on OSX. If this is actually an important tool for you I really doubt you'd ask this question as you would have seen examples and documentation relating to Windows. I think you're feigning ignorance.

I think there was a time where multimedia programs did not work well under Windows, but at least since XP things have gotten very usable (and acce

Also, my default answer when asked "what computer should I buy?" these days is "Get a mac."

Why? Because most people don't care about having ultra high end spec and have no idea what any of it means. They can't keep windows secure either.

Sure, I could migrate them to Linux, but the software availaibility in terms of commercial supported stuff just isn't there, and they'd still need to play system integrator. I'd also end up becoming helpdesk.

I just point them at apple.com, say "make sure you get at least 4GB of RAM and 128GB of disk or more" and they can pick whatever machine they like and have something reasonably sane.

The unix environment was designed to some degree by ATT. Giving credit to Stallman requires you give credit to everyone.We call it linux because its the generic, non-distro-denominational nym for a variety of environments that use/abuse the linux kernel. The one written by Linus and oh, a lot of other people who I really should name.